Check your bookmarks before sharing them
A bookmark folder can hold more than useful links. Its titles and addresses may reveal private projects, personal interests or links into your accounts. If you're sharing research or a reading list, make a copy with just those bookmarks.
1. Export a copy from your browser
Save your bookmarks as an HTML file and keep that original private. In desktop Chrome, go to Bookmarks and lists, Bookmark manager, then its More menu and Export Bookmarks. Cleaning the download won't change the bookmarks or sync settings in your browser.
2. Open the export in Bookmark cleaner
Choose the file and press Read bookmarks. The tool reads it without opening the saved pages or loading their icons. It accepts files up to 2 MiB, with 5,000 bookmarks, 500 folders and 32 folder levels. Reading a bookmark doesn't check whether its destination is safe.
3. Keep only the folders you need
Under Folders to keep, untick private or unrelated folders. Leaving out a folder leaves out everything inside it too. Check the remaining count. A work reading list usually doesn't need the personal folders sitting beside it.
4. Check names and links
Remove dates added and modified starts on. You can also replace bookmark and folder names with plain names. The tool removes common tracking parts of links, saved URL passwords and the part after # by default. Read what's left: a path or an unusual query value can still contain an account number, document key or other secret.
5. Look through the whole download
The preview shows only the first 50 bookmarks. Choose Download cleaned HTML, then read it as text if you want to check every address without visiting the pages. Search for private domains and names. For one link that needs more work, use Clean a URL or change the source export and clean it again.
6. Check links you need to keep working
Removing part of a link can change where it opens or stop it working. Deliberately test a few public links you need, then share the checked file with a suitable name. Only HTTP and HTTPS links are kept; browser-only links, bookmarklets and other link types are left out.
Good to know
This cleans the bookmark file, not the websites it points to. It won't cancel a shared-document link, remove a private page or make an unsafe website trustworthy. Keep your full personal export separate.